Most people, and brands, are not using Twitter correctly. Don’t use Twitter to sell. Instead, use it to build both brand awareness and relationships. Twitter can be such a powerful branding tool when your audience engages with your tweets, and it can open the door to new contacts and relationships.

Here are five common reasons your Twitter followers don’t engage with your tweets.

1. Your tweets don’t provide value to your followers.

Your followers will quickly tune you out if they notice your tweets aren’t providing any value. A large percentage of users -- 80 percent to be exact -- are active on mobile, making it easy for them to quickly skim through their newsfeeds and pass on tweets that they assume aren’t interesting, entertaining or helpful.

Think of the Twitter accounts you follow, but don’t pay attention to. What is it that causes you to mentally block them out before you even attempt to engage with their tweets? Non-stop posts of food pictures? Gym selfies? Tweets that are always bragging or complaining? There are plenty of reasons -- simply provide value and you will experience engagement.

2. Your tweets don’t trigger a response.

Statements don’t typically warrant a response from your followers, unless it is controversial, of course. What is the easiest way to get your followers to engage? Ask them a question. Yes, it is that simple.

You can craft your tweets around hot topics and breaking news to make them relevant. There isn’t a single brand or industry that cannot use this simple strategy to improve engagement. You can even retweet industry news and ask a question. Including a simple “What do you think about this turn of events?” question gives your followers a reason to engage with the tweet.

3. Your tweets send mixed signals.

A lot of your followers are going to use your bio to determine whether they will follow you. It’s important that your bio gives your followers a pretty good indication as to what they can expect from your tweets.

For example, my Twitter bio mentions my marketing agency as well as my online community, and it also mentions that I love entrepreneurship and the Red Sox. So my followers can expect lots of tweets related to marketing, branding and entrepreneurship -- but if I post an occasional Red Sox-related tweet it shouldn’t turn anyone off. Now, if I started to post fitness or stock tips that might cause my audience to disengage.

4. You don’t engage back with your followers.

You have to be willing to give a little if you want to receive -- and that means engaging back with your Twitter followers whenever possible. I constantly monitor my mentions and if someone takes the time to share some of my content and mentions my Twitter handle, then nine times out of 10 I’m going to shoot back a very simple, yet effective, thank you tweet.

It’s impossible to always acknowledge everyone, and some will undoubtedly slip through the cracks, but as long as you stay connected to your notifications, you shouldn’t have a problem retweeting and replying to your followers. Even if you are strapped for time, a simple “Favorite” is enough to keep your followers engaged with your tweets.

5. Your tweets don’t have clever and compelling images.

Including an image in your tweet will increase the engagement it receives -- tweets with images average a 35 percent increase in retweets. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform -- it can be difficult sometimes to draw attention away from all the other noise in the news stream with just text.

An image naturally draws more attention, so if it’s creative or explains what the tweet is about it’s going to receive more engagement. When I am skimming my Twitter feed I am always drawn to tweets with images. Use images to help attract the initial glance and a well-crafted tweet to trigger a reply or retweet.

Do you have any additional Twitter engagement advice? If so, share it in the comments section below.